Stacks: Entirely useless There, I said it. It has been far and away my biggest disappointment with Leopard. Stacks was one feature I was really excited about, but after 10 seconds of using it, I knew Stacks had to go. Worse than being less than I expected, Stacks actually took away my favorite feature of the dock: the ability to navigate through folder structures.

iPods look good, but they all look alike. Make your working iPod stand out with a new metal backing. Just permanently cover the original stainless steel by electroplating a new layer on top. Choose from gold, copper, nickel, tin, chrome, bronze, or other finishes. We tried gold- and copper-plating kits from Caswell Plating, for flashy and retro results. Be warned that gold can be difficult to apply, while copper is comparatively easy. We’ll explain the process for either metal.

There’s a world of power lurking inside Apple’s latest big cat. We give you the complete story on exactly where to find it.Installing a new operating system on your Mac is like unwrapping a much-anticipated holiday gift: There are just so many goodies inside waiting to be pored over and played with. We dug deep into Mac OS 10.5 - better known as Leopard - and found powerful tools, entertaining toys, and the occasional rock-hard fruitcake. Our in-depth Leopard primer is at www.maclife.com/article/living_with_leopard, but we’ve found more teeth on this cat. Come along for a tour of the hidden treats that are waiting for you inside Apple’s latest and greatest OS.

The time comes in every Mac user’s life when he or she hits the metaphorical wall: That rainbow-colored beach ball shows up way too often, and your Mac is bogged down by too many files, big caches, too many cookies, and who knows what else that builds up with everyday use. Or you think you’ve done everything you can to be more, ahem, productive, and your Mac still isn’t fast enough. Well, you don’t have to live with that state of affairs. We’re skipping right past the obvious time-savers (keyboard shortcuts? Been there, done that) to show you some of the best ways to speed up your workflow - and herd some more of your time back to pasture where it belongs - whether you have absolutely no time to spare or you can make a 20-minute investment in your Mac’s smooth operation.

Last month, this space was filled with news about Nehalem, Intel’s next generation of super-tiny, power-miserly, über-muscular, multicored processors. (If you missed my musings, you can find them on the Intertubes here). Among the many advances of this data-wrestling wonder will be its ability to process two simultaneous streams of data and instructions - also known as threads - through each of its cores. In its first incarnation, Nehalem will have up to eight cores, so we’re talking 16 threads coursing through this baby in a process called Simultaneous Multi-Threading (SMT).

The iPod set benchmarks for product usability, aesthetics and cultural cachet -- and then the iPhone proved that Apple's design mojo could strike twice. So, what could Apple possibly deliver next? Mac|Life imagines the future of Apple hardware design in the form of four product fauxtotypes.